Arnold Trachtman's (1930-2019) vibrant Expressionist views of Boston, Cambridge, and surrounding cities are on view in On the Town, a new exhibition of work by the prolific, though somewhat overlooked artist.  Born in Lynn, Trachtman spent most of his life in the Greater Boston area, eschewing the artistic hub of New York for his roots in New England. After serving overseas in the aftermath of World War II and receiving his Masters degree from the Art Institute of Chicago, Trachtman returned to the East Coast to begin a long career of teaching, painting, and activism. Though much of his art was political in nature, Trachtman also continually produced scenes of his immediate world: the bridges, buildings, parks, and squares of Metro Boston. Each of these paintings brim with life, Trachtmans' keen observations detailing both the notable architecture and colorful characters inhabiting familiar locales, capturing a more personal view of the "town" he called home.  

As a child, Trachtman didn't excel academically, but was painting and drawing constantly. He would eventually graduate from esteemed art schools including the aforementioned Art Institute of Chicago and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he would also later teach. Artistically, Trachtman straddled many genres and movements. Though not a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, as a Jewish artist working in representational figuration in the Boston area during the mid-twentieth century, he is linked to the Boston Expressionists. His commitment to depicting urban life – especially the working-class cities and denizens of Greater Boston - also firmly associates Trachtman with social realism. A dedicated Marxist, he is frequently referred to as a 'protest artist' – his works were often politically motivated and confronted social justice issues.  

While spanning genres and defying easy categorization, Trachtman's artwork finds its focus through visual storytelling, whether political or personal. The paintings in On the Town are of the latter sort, expressively documenting the sites Trachtman would have seen, the streets he would have walked, daily. Mostly dating from the 1960s, they are historical snapshots, recordings on canvas of specific times and places deeply personal to the artist. The exhibition is reminiscent of a walking tour through various cities and towns, with Trachtman as a guide, pointing out interesting details that may have gone otherwise unnoticed. Viewing the world through Trachtman's eyes, his joyfulness in the familiar is apparent – his paintings revel in the color and movement of city life, particularly when depicting the comings and goings of local residents. Trachtman loved his community, and the feeling was reciprocated - when a house fire destroyed much of his early work, local businesses chipped in to help the artist start over.  

The works in On the Town celebrate city life and community, illuminating a Boston area of the past through the vision of one of its more unique residents. Trachtman's paintings tell stories and reveal an artist as deeply invested in his neighborhood as it was in him. On the Town is on view at Childs Gallery January 12 through March 11, 2023. 

Hidden Worlds, a new exhibition of work by French master printmaker Erik Desmazières, journeys through the artist's intricately detailed spaces, revealing imaginary cosmos and surrealist views of everyday scenes. With the meticulous draftsmanship of Old Masters like Dürer and Piranesi, Desmazières creates works that envision new worlds - images based both on the artist's imagination and experiences. The exhibition highlights Desmazières' early work, heavy with fantasy and science fiction leanings, and is supplemented by later uniquely cerebral views of Parisian rooftops, arcades, and ateliers. Hidden Worlds explores these complexly inviting spaces through prints and drawings that span Desmazières' nearly six-decade career. 

A copperplate etching revivalist working in the genre of Art Fantastique, Desmazières' work plays with both tradition and progression. Combining the past, present, and future, the artist displays his mastery of world-building, producing images and views of people, places, and things that never were, but certainly feel as if they could have been. His uncanny attention to detail and hand for atmospheric light and shadow brings to life scenes in a variety of reoccurring motifs: cities and buildings, battles and warriors, libraries and letters, wonder chambers and curiosities, comedies and characters. With each, the artist envisions an imaginary world unto itself, all demanding of a longer look, a deeper investigation into the singular world he has created. It is as if something more, something exciting, something important is happening right outside the boundary of the artist's plate.  

Born in Rabat, Morocco in 1948 to a French diplomat, Erik Desmazières has been described as arguably the finest French printmaker of his generation. After graduating from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris in 1971, he turned his attentions towards the arts, having drawn since childhood. He subsequently studied printmaking at the Cours du Soir de la Ville de Paris. During his career Desmazières has received the Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris, and was elected to the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Français, where he has served as President since 2006. He continues to be a force in printmaking, with solo museum exhibitions throughout the world, including major shows in France, the Netherlands, the United States, and Japan.

Hidden Worlds marks the fourth solo exhibition of Desmazières' work at Childs Gallery.Hidden Worlds: Prints and Drawings by Erik Desmazières is on view in the Childs Gallery print department January 6 through March 25, 2023.

Childs Gallery is pleased to present our latest online exclusive exhibition, Nocturnes.

James McNeill Whistler popularized the term "nocturne" in regards to works of visual art. Prior to Whistler's novel usage of the term, nocturnes referred to a musical compositions, usually an ensemble piece in several movements, intended for an evening party. During the Romantic era nocturnes underwent an evolution, they became single-movement character pieces usually written for solo piano that were meant to be evocative of night.  It was with this latter association in mind that Whistler began to incorporate the word in his titles, creating night scenes with a dreamlike, pensive mood. Since then the term gained a broader usage and has come to refer to any artwork that either directly represents a night scene or is evocative of night.

In this exhibition we present a wide array of works from our collection, including paintings, pastels, prints, and watercolors from a diverse set of artist, including Jean Michel Mathieux-Marie, Frank Benson, Leo Meissner, Resa Blatman, and many others.

William Evertson's latest series of woodblock prints draws inspiration from the idea of fake news, disinformation, propaganda, and the construction of divisive narratives that drive culture wars. The works in Politics, Protest, History, and Myth layer culturally resonant imagery upon overlapping themes from both our national and global history and mythos, examining the nature of shared ideas in a climate of extreme politicization. The woodblock printing method provides a bold, graphic media through which the artist seeks to understand the structure of both past and present. Combining historical research with old printing technology to comment on new but recurring issues, Evertson lays bare pervasive societal flaws that cross time and culture. 

Born in 1952, Evertson grew up with drills hiding under desks in preparation for nuclear war – a precursor to today's active shooter drills. While a twenty-something artist, America's landscape of cultural and political upheaval - including the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, anti-war protests, Black Panthers, the Chicago Seven, and Kent State massacre – helped foment Evertson's passion for activist art.  

The prints in Politics, Protest, History, and Myth continue Evertson's interest in asserting political activism through visual media. Using collaged imagery, often blending art historical and printmaking allusions with modern references gleaned from the internet and television, Evertson creates familiar yet irreverent scenes packed with biting socio-political commentary, allowing an examination of current polarizing rhetoric through historic counterpoints. The effect is humorous, but also (and more importantly) contemplative, as the prints detail an account of the frightening, yet somehow buffoonish possible downfall of contemporary western democracy.  

Evertson additionally pulls from Roland Barthes' Mythologies, Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle, and surrealist author René Daumal's Mount Analogue for inspiration in his choice of imagery and narrative. Drawing upon these writings' various philosophies, allegories, and semiotics, the artist explores a visual representation of the indifference towards and normalization of extremist viewpoints. Of particular interest in Evertson's most recent work is the transformation of the Republican party's platform - from the traditional obstruction of progressive ideas into MAGA's theocratic authoritarian inclinations. The artist examines the subtle relationship of constructing mythologies as a propaganda technique, begetting the circulation of disinformation, to the advantage of the powerful and detriment of the masses. Evertson's use of prints – a traditionally more proletariat artform – is a clever subversion of this, establishing his own iconography within editioned works to counteract widespread falsehoods. 

William Evertson: Politics, Protest, History, and Myth is on view in the Childs Gallery Print Department October 6 through December 10, 2022. A reception with the artist will be held Thursday, October 6, 6-8pm. 

Childs Gallery is pleased to present Where Light Dances: On the Ocean and In My Memories, an exhibition of new work by Joan Hall. Hall's mixed media sculptures and installations are inspired by her climate change advocacy and recent personal crisis, building a story explored through cause and effect, control and surrender, love and loss.  

Hall's large-scale sculptural works emphasize the materials of handmade paper, glass, and metal, and address her deep connection to and concern for the Earth's oceans. A lifelong sailor, Hall uses her art to promote marine advocacy, primarily concerning the human impact on water quality.  From her home and studio in Jamestown, Rhode Island, Hall sees the effects of climate change firsthand – the increasing plastic pollution infesting waterways, the appearance of invasive algae, and the subsequent loss of native aquatic species, all of which disrupt delicate and vital ecosystems. 

Hall confronts these threats head-on, incorporating plastics and assorted trash found on local beaches into collagraph printing plates which impress haunting images of human waste onto handmade paper. Hall also uses vibrant pigments, often in the form of pulp, to color her pieces in hues that mimic destructive algae found propagating in non-native waters. Her handmade papers are sculpted into undulating wave-like forms that are a beautiful but cautionary reminder of humankind's role in widespread oceanic pollution. Ultimately, Hall's goal is to initiate a conversation about the deterioration of our greatest resource – water, in the hope that her message yields positive change. 

While the immersive works in Where Light Dances express Hall's despair and hope concerning climate change, they also address recent personal grief after the loss of her husband, art historian Mark S. Weil. The exhibition connects global catastrophe and personal tragedy through works that resonate with both the artist and audience. Ocean Library is a sculpture constructed from paper and sand, cast to resemble stacked books – Hall made the paper from Weil's cotton shirts and silk ties, and the sand was collected from beaches the world over. The piece comments on the finite nature of sand but also speaks to our limited time with loved ones. Sand and time slip through our fingers so quickly; they are fleeting and should be appreciated, treasured, and protected while able. The cast books are records of events past, both from a global perspective and Hall's own experiences. 

Love, Loss, Serenity similarly confronts universal and personal crises. The sculpture is made from images from a 1472 map of Rome included in Hall's husband's PhD thesis, along with plastic detritus, and hand-cut spiked forms representing endangered sea urchins. In its circular form, Love, Loss, Serenity embodies the repetition of history, from the fall of ancient empires to inaction towards our current climate crisis. Beautifully frenzied in its orange and purple hues, the piece commands attention and introspection regarding death and its relation to us, our history, and the environment. 

The exhibition title, Where Light Dances, is taken from Victoria Finlay's book Color: A Natural History of the Palette, referencing a passage detailing the author's childhood visit to Chartres Cathedral and the dazzling impression of its vivid stained glass. Hall's work similarly utilizes color and memory to craft a story global in scale and human in feeling, tackling ubiquitous truths and private hardships. Where Light Dances weaves together hope for the future health of our oceans and optimism in the face of private grief, through Hall's organic and engaging paper forms.

 Joan Hall – Where Light Dances: On the Ocean and In My Memories will be on view September 15 through November 12, with an opening reception with the artist on Thursday, September 15, 6-8pm. 

Our new online exhibition Immortalized on Canvas journeys through portraiture, from American Revolutionary War heroes to artist self portraits to contemporary images of pop culture icons. The exhibition, on view on our website August 26 through September 30, features work by artists including Alexander Brook, Thomas Darsney, Molly Luce, Sally Michel, Randall Palmer, Charles Willson Peale, Beatrice Whitney Van Ness, and others.

American abstract artist Robert S. Neuman's career spanned more than six decades and stretched geographically from his birthplace of Idaho to the San Francisco Bay Area to coastal Maine. Though mostly known for his colorful, energetic paintings, Neuman was also prolific in printmaking and mixed media. Robert S. Neuman: Works on Paper presents various prints and other paper-based artworks from the artist's long career, showcasing his adept talent at translating his visions across multiple different media. 

Neuman embraced the tenets of modernism early in his career and devoted his life to an exploration of its visual essentials — an exploration infused with abstract, symbolic and occasionally overt references to places and people familiar to the artist. As Neuman worked in series that would span decades, his body of work defies the traditional expectations of artistic trajectory and development. Using shapes, symbols, and calligraphy, Neuman created a specific reoccurring visual language in each of his series that tie the pieces together across his lengthy career. Robert S. Neuman: Works on Paper highlights works from many of Neuman's best known series including Alhambra, Lame Deer, Ship to Paradise, Space Signs, and Voyages. 

The exhibition also celebrates the release of Pieces of the World: The Art and Life of Robert S. Neuman, a new documentary which gathers in-person interviews with scholars, family, and friends, archival and personal photographs, and images of numerous artworks to create an intimate and compelling portrait of the artist. A screening of the documentary will be held at Childs Gallery on Thursday, September 22, 6-8pm. 

Robert S. Neuman: Works on Paper is on view in Childs Gallery's upstairs Print Department, August 4 through October 1, 2022, with an opening reception Sunday, August 21, 2-4pm.

Childs Gallery is pleased to present Beauty in the Beasts: Animals and Art, on view July 14 through September 10, 2022. The exhibition brings together paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculpture from historic and contemporary artists celebrating the beauty of animals both domesticated and wild. 

The human fascination with animals and the desire to encapsulate them in art begins in prehistory, when the earliest artists painted wild game on rocks and caves in simplified forms that communicated an intimate knowledge of the creatures providing food, clothing, and other necessities. Since then, animals have continued to loom large within the art historical cannon, appearing throughout the centuries variously as religious symbols, scientific interests, prize-winning beasts, and beloved companion pets. 

Beauty in the Beasts pulls from these many animal-centric genres with pieces spanning from the 19^th to 21^st centuries. Contemporary artists including Nancy Anderson, Amy Ross, and Karen Lee Sobol explore the breadth of the animal kingdom, from the pampered life of domesticated dogs to the untamed spirit of wild animals and the alien creatures inhabiting our embattled oceans. 

Works by historic artists include soulful elephant lithographs by Henry Moore, a farmland scene with hens from Herbert Barnett, charming photographs of a scruffy black poodle and its owner by George Platt Lynes, and Clifton Tomson's stunning sporting portrait of Altisidora, a 19^th century thoroughbred racehorse. 

The exhibition additionally features work by Resa Blatman, Donald De Lue, Erik Desmazières, Walton Ford, Sawool Kim, Molly Luce, Anne Lyman Powers, Dudley Vaill Talcott, Carol Wax, and others. Beauty and the Beasts will be on view July 14 through September 10, 2022, with a dog-friendly opening reception Thursday, July 14, 4-8pm. 

The exhibition has been organized in part to help recognize the important work done by the MSPCA (Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). The organization tirelessly advocates for the welfare of animals through adoption, low cost spay and neuter clinics, community outreach, and other programs. A percentage of the proceeds from Beauty in the Beasts will benefit the MSPCA, to assist in their ongoing efforts to promote and preserve the human-animal bond through socially conscious rescue, sheltering, and adoption.  

Gallery Director and longtime MSPCA volunteer Kathryn Fields states, "We're all animal lovers at Childs Gallery. We frequently bring our dogs to work and welcome others who come in with their owners. Animal advocacy is therefore incredibly important to us, and we hope this exhibition, celebrating the varied beauty of the animal kingdom, inspires the same feeling of compassion in others. We put together Beauty in the Beasts as a showcase for the extraordinary breadth in point of view when considering animals as subjects of art, and in hopes of contributing to the MSPCA's work in animal welfare."

E. Lombardo's new series of works, Soft Butch Blues, explores the artist and her wife's journey to parenthood. The series of fourteen drypoint prints documents the intimate process from trigger shots to birth to acclimating as a family of three. Addressing reproductive rights, body autonomy, fear, anxiety, and more, Soft Butch Blues navigates difficult subjects with joy, warmth, and refreshing frankness. 

Lombardo's new prints are an autobiographical resistance against society's tendency towards lesbian erasure. They record both the extraordinary and mundane events associated with birth and parenthood through a lesbian-centric lens, capturing a unique yet familiar perspective on family. Executed in fine intricate colorful lines on varied papers, the prints in Soft Butch Blues display the exuberance, worry, and fragility of the family's experience.  

Lombardo and her wife's identities as working-class queer women in New York City are central to how their distinct yet recognizable narrative unfolds. Trigger intimately records an integral part of the IUI process, with a closeup image of Lombardo giving a hormone injection to her wife. Tests to Stay addresses the anxieties of trying to conceive during Covid – an ovulation test is seen amongst rapid tests and various objects symbolizing fertility, courage, and extinction. Later prints document Lombardo's wife's changing body and the physical and mental toll of pregnancy upon her person. 9:54 PM celebrates the much-awaited arrival of their daughter. 

The completion of the Soft Butch Blues series and its exhibition at Childs Gallery comes at a tumultuous time within the United States, as the country sees the potential unfolding of a dangerous reversal in equality and human rights. In this environment, the amplification of queer narratives is crucial.  

Lombardo says of her current project: "As the Supreme Court is considering reversing Roe vs. Wade, this work is about motherhood, the most complex choice a person can make about their body. More than a dozen states are legislating 'Don't Say Gay' bills which threaten the rights of LGBTQ+ adults, children, and families to discuss their lived experience openly just as any heteronormative person can. Soft Butch Blues is a story of enduring love and blind faith as everything seems to be teetering on the edge." Soft Butch Blues is on view in Childs Gallery's Print Department, June 2 through July 30, 2022. An opening reception with the artist will be held Sunday, June 5, 2-4pm.

Hope springs eternal in Resa Blatman's new exhibition at Childs Gallery, Pure Love: Stardust, Clouds, and Dandelions. After the heaviness of the past several years, Blatman's latest work focuses on the optimistic ideologies associated with the arrival of springtime. Renewal and revitalization are represented through dandelions and clouds highlighted with golds, bronzes, and sparkling glitter – ephemeral objects grounded in more permanent materials. Musing on love, nature, the universe, and death, Blatman's paintings, drawings, and installations in Pure Love are a visual reawakening after darkness. 

Fond memories from Blatman's childhood are embedded into her new work, revealing themselves through the artist's style and aesthetic choices. Her father was a master upholsterer whose material room full of differing textiles provided an ample playground for a young Blatman. Her interest in varying materials and textures manifests in the use of diverse media such as oils, colored pencils, gold leaf, and glitter, on unusual substrates like mylar and aluminum panels.  

Since contracting Covid in March 2021 and again in April of 2022, Blatman has contemplated the relationship between humanity and all existence - life on Earth, the clouds, the stars, the universe – building a body of work reflecting ideas of interconnectedness and impermanence. After a hospitalization during her first bout of Covid, Blatman returned to her work with a sense of renewal and hope – somber black backgrounds turned to glittering gold, and fluffy dandelions and clouds began to appear in her paintings.  

These soft, mutable, ephemeral objects speak to the brevity of life, the inevitability of death, and the integral connection between the two. Yet Blatman isn't just interested in beginnings and endings – she also considers what happens during the in-between. The happiness, the turmoil, and myriad of other states we experience during our time on Earth; humans, like the objects in her paintings, are ever changing. Her new works are in effect, radiant, sparkly memento mori – reminders of our frailty but also to enjoy ourselves, as time is ultimately fleeting. Blatman has challenged herself to tackle overwhelming subjects and morph them convincingly into tragically beautiful works of art. 

Though her work may confront daunting ideas, Blatman states that the paintings, drawings, and installations in her new exhibition come from a place of love and gratitude and hopes to offer viewers a feeling of grace as vast as the universe. 

Pure Love: Stardust, Clouds and Dandelions is Blatman's second solo exhibition with Childs Gallery and is on view May 19 through July 9, 2022. An opening reception with the artist will be held Thursday, May 19, 4 to 8pm and an artist talk is planned for Saturday, June 18 at 1pm.